A Hard-Earned Opportunity, Indeed
By The Editors
It took a couple of years and his election as president of the United States, but Barack Obama finally has acknowledged the success of the surge unambiguously. In his Iraq speech at Camp Lejeune on Friday, Obama said American troops had “succeeded beyond expectation.” He hailed the assembled soldiers and Marines for doing their job in toppling Saddam Hussein, in setting up a sovereign government, and in giving the Iraqi people “a hard-earned opportunity to live a better life.”Obama outlined a scheme for withdrawal not that different from the one George W. Bush left him. With the war ebbing in Iraq, it was inevitable that our force levels would come down. We had already agreed with the Iraqis to exit from the cities this summer and to leave entirely at the end of 2011 (although with the Iraqis, everything is negotiable). Obama’s contribution is to say that we will be down from 142,000 troops to roughly 50,000 by August 2010.During the campaign, Obama had said he would withdraw U.S. forces within 16 months of taking office. Instead, after 18 months, he will still have a third of our current force in place in Iraq. Obama says “our combat mission will end” in August 2010. But some combat brigades will simply be renamed advisory training brigades or advisory assistance brigades, and one mission of the remaining brigades will be “conducting targeted counter-terrorism missions,” which obviously requires combat.
Read “A Hard-Earned Opportunity, Indeed” — By The Editors
It’s Not the Prison, It’s the Prisoners
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Among our illustrious allies in the War on Terror, Yemen ranks right up there with Pakistan, whose government just released nuke-peddler A. Q. Kahn from house arrest. Yemen’s government says it is preparing a major combat operation to drain one of the many swamps where jihad festers. So what preparations is it making? Massing troops? Infiltrating terrorist strongholds to identify top targets? No, Yemen’s approach is a little different: They’re releasing al-Qaeda operatives from prison—more than 170 of them.It’s a development worth remembering as the Obama administration continues its hand-wringing over the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where 245 enemy combatants, including 21 charged with war crimes, are being held.The Yemen/Gitmo nexus is in the news again because of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a ringleader behind the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden. Last week, the “appointing authority” (sometimes called the “convening authority”), which oversees military commissions at Gitmo, dismissed all charges against Nashiri. The action came after the military judge handling Nashiri’s case denied prosecutors’ request that the case be adjourned for four months while the Obama administration studies the commissions.
Read “It’s Not the Prison, It’s the Prisoners” — By Andrew C. McCarthy
More of the Same on Al-Arabiya
By James S. Robbins
President Obama’s exclusive interview on the Arab television network al-Arabiya has been promoted as another indication of the new course in American diplomacy—of a radical break with the policies of the Bush administration. But how much of the substance of his message was really new? Certainly the format was old hat; President Bush appeared on al-Arabiya many times, as long ago as 2004. Even Laura Bush appeared on the network to discuss women’s issues.
A close examination of the al-Arabiya appearances of the two presidents shows more commonality than variance. For example, on the Palestinian issue, President Obama told the Arab world that there is the promise for progress but hard work will be required:
I do believe that the moment is ripe for both sides to realize that the path that they are on is one that is not going to result in prosperity and security for their people, and that instead, it’s time to return to the negotiating table. And it’s going to be difficult, it’s going to take time. . . . But if we start the steady progress on these issues, I’m absolutely confident that the United States—working in tandem with the European Union, with Russia, with all the Arab states in the region—I’m absolutely certain that we can make significant progress.
President Bush speaking in January 2005 gave a similar, even more upbeat assessment:
I’m very optimistic because I believe that most Israelis do understand that in the long term their survival depends upon a democratic state coexisting peacefully with Israel. And I’m very optimistic because I believe the world now sees an opportunity to come together to help the process forward.
Obama is optimistic about the possibility for a two-state solution:
I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side. And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there’s a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs.
As was President Bush on al-Arabiya in May 2004:
I stood up in front of the world and said that the Palestinian people ought to have their own state. I’m the first President to have ever said that. And my assurance is, is that I have not changed my vision of two states living side-by-side in peace. . . . [M]y commitment to the Palestinian people is, when peaceful leaders emerge, when people are willing to fight off terror, they will have a great opportunity to see this state emerge. And America will help.
In President Obama’s vision of the future Palestinian state, economic development will play a major role:
I think it is possible for us to see a Palestinian state—I’m not going to put a time frame on it—that is contiguous, that allows freedom of movement for its people, that allows for trade with other countries, that allows the creation of businesses and commerce so that people have a better life. . . . And if we can keep our focus on making their lives better and look forward, and not simply think about all the conflicts and tragedies of the past, then I think that we have an opportunity to make real progress.
So too in the Bush vision:
In order for the Palestinian economy to grow, there needs to be—there needs to be crossings in—yes, in northern Gaza, in Israel, so people can go and work and come back and bring enterprise. Israeli capital needs to take a look at enterprise zones within the Gaza so that there’s a chance for people to find work. Foreign capital needs to be encouraged to go into Gaza so that the—so that good Palestinians can work. . . . The Palestinians are good businesspeople. And they want to be free. And they’re peaceful, they really are peaceful.
On U.S. relations with the broader Islamic world, Obama drew clear lines between the radicals and the general Muslim community, and stated, regarding the terrorists: “Their ideas are bankrupt. There’s no actions that they’ve taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better health care because of them. . . . And over time, I think the Muslim world has recognized that that path is leading no place, except more death and destruction.”This of course is no different from the line that George Bush used throughout his presidency. He told al-Arabiya in October 2005 that the terrorists “have hijacked a great religion. Islam is peace—it’s not war, it’s not killing innocent children and innocent women. . . . They don’t have a philosophy. People don’t say, gosh, I want to follow them because there’s such a better tomorrow. And the only weapon they’ve got is to kill innocent people.”#page#Obama noted that “there are extremist organizations—whether Muslim or any other faith in the past—that will use faith as a justification for violence. We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith’s name.” Likewise Bush said to al-Arabiya in October 2007 that “those who came to kill Americans were young terrorists, and they do not reflect the views of the vast majority of peaceful people in the Middle East. . . . The war is not a struggle against Muslims, the Muslim religion, it is a struggle of honorable, peaceful people throughout the world against the few who want to impose their vision.”Obama made much of his ability to serve as an intermediary between the United States and Muslim people, having lived in the largest Muslim country and having Muslim relatives. He sees himself as a bridge between the Muslim world and America: “My job is to communicate the fact that the United States has a stake in the well-being of the Muslim world, that the language we use has to be a language of respect. . . . I’ve come to understand [ ] that regardless of your faith—and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers—regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.”
Read “More of the Same on Al-Arabiya” — By James S. Robbins
Pakistan Votes ‘No’ on the War on Terror
By Stanley Kurtz
Everyone, from the editorial board of the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to President Bush, seems to be delighted with the results of the election in Pakistan. Color me skeptical. Have a look at this article declaring that: “Pakistan Victors Want Dialogue With Militants,” and you’ll see why. Pakistan’s victorious opposition parties are signaling a new approach to terrorism. That strategy “is more likely to be responsive to the consensus of the Pakistani public than was Mr. Musharraf’s and is more likely to shun a heavy hand by the military and rely on dialogue with the militants.” Ah, democracy — or rather, “democracy.”Let’s review. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban make their headquarters in the hills of northwest Pakistan. From Pakistan, they launch assaults against NATO’s forces in Afghanistan and spawn terror plots against Europe. Pakistan harbors Osama bin Laden and others responsible for 9/11, a network that actively continues to plan mass-terror attacks on the U.S.Thus, the U.S. has every right to go to war with Pakistan. That we have not done so is a matter of prudence, given the fact that the chaos of war could leave some of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons or materials in bin Laden’s hands. Rumor has it that, shortly after 9/11, when President Bush presented President Musharraf with the choice to stand “with us or against us,” Bush made it clear that choosing “against” would mean a devastating military attack. This is the essential background against which the results of Pakistan’s election have to be assessed. We seem to have forgotten these fundamental facts.
Read “Pakistan Votes ‘No’ on the War on Terror” — By Stanley Kurtz
Iraq Is Not the Worry
By Victor Davis Hanson
General David Petraeus — a sort of combination of Fabius Maximus (“unus homo…”) and Matthew Ridgway — has changed the entire Iraqi war, and thereby given us a breathing spell to reflect on our longer-term strategies of victory.Most of the conventional pessimism about Iraq is being proven wrong. For example, the recently translated captured diary of the dead al-Qaeda terrorist — Abu Maysara, a senior adviser to Abu Ayyoub al-Masri — reveals a sort of hopelessness. The dead Maysara laments that al-Qaeda has lost the hearts and minds of the people to the U.S. and its Iraqi allies, while suffering terrible battlefield losses. Abu Maysara did not write as some civilian defeatist, the equivalent of our own Moveon.org antiwar protesters. He was instead a frontline fighter, once confident of victory in the field, but realistically broken by defeat — before he was killed.
Read “Iraq Is Not the Worry” — By Victor Davis Hanson
Pessimistic Predictions
By Jonathan Schanzer
When good news arrives from Iraq, most Americans celebrate. But not the Middle East studies professors who are often quoted in the mainstream press. For them, good news is bad news.Testimony from General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is one of an increasing number of reports that the troop surge there has led to tangible improvements — so much so that even some of the most outspoken opponents of the war acknowledge that things are looking up.
Read “Pessimistic Predictions” — By Jonathan Schanzer
Nonviolence Nonsense
By Victor Davis Hanson
Those who do not necessarily associate the name Gandhi with either humanitarian brotherhood or wisdom, and those who remember Mahatma’s idiotic thoughts about those facing the Holocaust ought to examine the latest Gandhi take on “the Jews” in the online edition of the Washington Post, this time from one Arun Gandhi.He is self-identified as the “President and co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence” and “the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now at the University of Rochester in New York.”
Read “Nonviolence Nonsense” — By Victor Davis Hanson
One Happy Mob
By Michael Ledeen
As Matthew Levitt points out, we’ve been doing much better of late catching the Iranians, often in tandem with the Syrians, giving a lot of support to terrorists in Iraq. Better yet, we are slapping penalties on them, most recently on three terrorist supporters and leaders in Iran and one in Syria, where he runs the al-Zawra television station. Americans are henceforth forbidden to do business with these rogues, and if the USG - Iraq Reconstruction Task Force can get at any of their assets, we’ll grab them.That’s excellent news, and the announcement is helpfully accompanied by considerable documentation of the terrorists and their supporters singled out by our Treasury Department. Undersecretary Stuart Levey, who has been one of the driving forces behind this program, puts it in a broad context: Iran and Syria are fueling violence and destruction in Iraq. Iran trains, funds, and provides weapons to violent Shia extremist groups, while Syria provides safe haven to Sunni insurgents and financiers.
Read “One Happy Mob” — By Michael Ledeen
Let’s Have a FISA Fight
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Here’s something I never thought I’d say: Three cheers for Chris Dodd! With his bid for the Democrats’ presidential nomination canceled for lack of interest, Connecticut’s senior senator is back to doing what he does best: making the United States vulnerable to foreign threats. The editors of the Wall Street Journal report that Dodd is blocking a deal to overhaul the dangerously obsolete Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Read “Let’s Have a FISA Fight” — By Andrew C. McCarthy
Peace Promise
By The Editors
President Bush’s visit to the Middle East invites very mixed reactions. He arrived to tell Israelis and Palestinians that they each deserve a state. Fine. More than that, he anticipated “a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office” — that is, in a matter of months. The pursuit of peace is admirable, and cannot be achieved without some American input, but promissory notes of this sort have a way of becoming hostages to fortune. Even if a peace treaty were signed, mechanisms would not exist to enforce it. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is mistrusted, and stays in office by the skin of his teeth. President Bush calls for a pull-out from the West Bank, but if this means forcible dismantling settlements and the division of Jerusalem, Olmert cannot deliver it, and any attempt to do so would dangerously destabilize Israel. With grim symmetry, Mahmoud Abbas is unable to deliver the Palestinians. Divided between Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinians engage in low-level civil war, and are in no condition to form a society, never mind a state. Every day, Hamas fires rockets and mortars at Israel, Hezbollah threatens to do the same, and Abbas is powerless to act.
Read “Peace Promise” — By The Editors
‘Enter Islam or Else!’
By James S. Robbins
Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam al Amriki, has come a long way since his days living on a goat farm and playing in his one-man death metal band Aphasia. The 30-year-old California native has quickly become the American face of al Qaeda — well, he became the face once he stopped wearing a mask. If he were just some lone nut rambling on his vidblog, who would invest an hour to listen to him, let alone do a write-up? But he works for Osama, and that alone gives him at least a paragraph in every media outlet in America. Azzam’s purpose is to make an appeal to the American people, to explain the current situation in the war and to exhort them to join in supporting al Qaeda and its cause. His message was directed especially to America’s veterans, who will soon begin to suffer from drug addiction, alcoholism, dementia, suicidal tendencies and other “Vietnam syndrome” conditions brought on by the numerous crimes they committed while at war. No worries, he says, Allah will forgive them if they sign onto the jihadist program and abandon the “satanic Crusader Zionist Hindu atheist apostate nexus sitting on the Muslims’ chest.” And if you’ve ever had a nexus on your chest you know how painful that can be.
Read “‘Enter Islam or Else!’” — By James S. Robbins
Iraq Seen Plain
By Michael Ledeen
Back in February, Reuters was publishing a daily roundup of “security developments” in Iraq. On a random day, February 8 — it looked like this:RAFIYAAT — Gunmen shot dead 14 men from the same Sunni Arab family in a massacre near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, after storming two neighbouring homes and separating the men from the women and children, police said. A 15th man, shot six times, was in critical condition in hospital.ISKANDARIYA — Mortar bombs killed seven people and wounded 10 in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.BAGHDAD — Four U.S. Marines were killed in combat on Wednesday in two separate attacks in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Thursday.FALLUJA — U.S. forces said they killed 13 insurgents in an air strike on two suspected foreign fighter safe houses near the town of Ameriya, near the western city of Falluja. Ahmed al-Ami, a doctor in Falluja hospital, said more than 30 bodies, including those of seven children, were brought in.#*# AZIZIYA — A car bomb in a vegetable market killed 17 people and wounded 27 in the town of Aziziya, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.#*# MOSUL — Police found 16 bodies in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, during the past 24 hours. Among the dead were five policemen, police said.#*# BAGHDAD — Police found 20 bodies in Baghdad, all apparent victims of sectarian killings.#*# HADITHA — A suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint north of Haditha in Anbar province, killing seven policemen and wounding three, police said.#*# BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked a joint Iraqi army-police checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing an army officer and a soldier and wounding three policemen and one soldier.#*# GARMA — Police found the bodies of three people with gunshot wounds in the head in the town of Garma, near Falluja, 50km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.
Read “Iraq Seen Plain” — By Michael Ledeen
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